Grest and Themis
by RedWorld
Summary: This is how Grest and Themis, my OCs, first met each other.


It was a great day in Inaf, and Grest, who was 11, had just arrived two weeks ago. At first, he hadn't a clue on what exactly was going on, since we was a newcomer to the town, let alone the whole continent of Ostin. He was sailed to the continent by a group of people who had found him so young with another group of mercenaries. He was too young for them, so Gale, a man of great muscle, but not much handsomeness, took him in to train him at such a young age.

So here he was; a wooden sword in one hand and a book to read in the other. The book was all about the ancient language the herons spoke. He was so interested in these creatures. He had crimson hair in the front of his head and emerald hair in the back, flowing down his neck. His eyes had a fire-like image when you looked at them that matched his personality quite well. He wore a black shirt with a red cape over him; covering him life a warm blanket would cover a cold person in the middle of winter. He also wore brown, baggy pants and boots that matched with him quite well.

Unfortunately, Grest had no time for reading today. Gale had all ready started to train with him. Grest wasn't the one who used swords much. Every time he would swing his sword, it would cause it to make him lose his balance and fall, face first, to the ground, being very vulnerable if Gale was out to get him. Luckly, Gale wasn't much of a bad guy. Of course, he had a heart, but it was too tough to get to, so no one would even bother with it. This time, though, when Grest fell to the ground, Gale took the back of his collar and threw him back up, growling, "Do it again!"

Grest knew he had to train harder, but he was better a mage than a myrmidon. Why did he have to train this way? It was because of his special sword. It was a sword that was elemental, which could let him swing it and make magic do the rest. Unfortunately, Gale strictly forbade him to use that sword during practice. It was for Grest's safety, for if Grest made one wrong move with it, it could kill them both on the spot. It was a good thing, though, that Grest was allowed to at least keep it in his cabin.

As seconds turned to minutes and minutes seemed to turn into hours, Grest was growing tired. He disliked this training because Gale kept going and going on the training. Grest could never get the posture of the sword right, which forced him to train more. He swung it at Gale and Gale countered it with another blow of the sword. Even though both of the swords were wooden, it was just enough force to push Grest back and make him fall again. With that, Gale marched to him and picked him up by the collar, not letting him go this time.

"Boy, do you want to become a great swordmaster one day? DO YOU!" he yelled angrily to Grest's face. Grest was very sensitive, for he didn't like anyone, even if it was his trainer, to yell at him. He held back a sob and choked out, "Yes…" Gale stared at him directly in the eyes and his brows softened, but only for a moment. "Good. Then let's see you actually DO something." And by the collar, he threw him backwards. The training continued.

But not for long. After a few more minutes of training, a group of men in brown armor came through the area, all carrying a rather large, well-covered cage. Inside was a boy with dark blue hair and eyes, wearing a raggy, long, brown shirt. He also had… blue cat-like ears and a tail? Grest stopped and took a look at the cage, meeting the eyes of the animal-like human. The human saw Grest as well, but only for a moment, when Gale yelled, "Halt! What are you doing that you have to come through my private property?" One of the armed men looked back at him and replied, "Us? Oh, pay us no mind. We're delivering a slave to a nearby home and there was no easier way to pass through, so we had to go through here. Our dearest apologies." Gale blinked and silently said to himself, "Slave…?" He then shook his head and waved his hand. "That's fine. Move along. And don't do such thing again!"

With that, the men passed through and Gale stopped in his tracks, watching the men carry the cage down the hill. Grest was confused and he walked to Gale. "Why did we stop training?" he asked. Gale never stopped training with him, even if there was a battle going on adjacent to them. Gale shook his head. "Did you hear that?" he whispered lowly so that the armed men couldn't hear them, even though they were out of sight now. "Why are we whispering?" Grest asked in the same tone, not really seeing the point.

Gale palmed his face, then after a moment, replied, "Those men are taking that poor boy into custody, to work for someone. That's slavery and not right for Inaf, let alone Ostin." Gale believed that the only fairness in life is justice and he took slavery the most serious when it came to it. He hated slavery so much, it irritated him, just by the sound of the word. He even hissed when he said the word. "Grest, do me a favor. Stay here and make sure that no more cages arrive on my property. If they do, come find me." And before Grest could state his own opinion, Gale was gone. Grest stared at the way he went and shook his head. "Darn… I wanted to go too!" he said to himself. He then looked up and smiled. "Maybe I can…" And with that, Grest went on his first mission in his life, all alone.

It seemed to not be long before Grest reached the house with the cage. The knights have all ready disappeared and there was no one outside the house, but when Grest put an ear to the door, he heard two men yelling, one was sure to be Gale. Grest walked to the cage and looked at the boy again. The animal-like human's eyes grew big and he started to say something in another language: _"No! I don't want to be your slave! Please understand I did nothing wrong! I'm so scared!"_ Grest gasped. He understood him, for he could speak some of the language as well. He shook his head and said, _"I will not hurt you. I am here to set you free! Tell me. What is your name?"_

The boy gasped and smiled, tears running down his face. _"How can humans ….I mean beorc… speak the ancient language! You are truly amazing! My name is Themis. I'm a cat laguz, which I'm sure it's obvious. Why are you here to save me? Aren't you going to enslave me?" _Grest laughed at Themis' error. It didn't matter if the laguz, the half-human, half-animal, tribe called Grest a human or not. It was supposed to be insulting as a beorc calling a laguz a sub-human, but Grest didn't care. He WAS human after all.

With jokes aside, Grest replied, _"Themis, I'm not an enslaver. Besides, no laguz should be doing such things! They should be free to do whatever they please! Now hold on…" _With that, Themis nodded and watched Grest take out a small knife. He fiddled with the lock of the door and smiled to him. _"I know how to unlock locks,"_ he rambled as he worked diligently at the lock. _"I'm not sure on how I got the ability though… I think I was born with it…"_ After another moment, Grest was finally able to break the lock and set Themis free! But on that moment, their luck seemed to have run out.

The man who had bought Themis as a slave was outside, jaw dropped at what Grest was doing. "T…Thief!" he shouted. "What are you doing to my sub-human!" Grest gasped and turned around. "RUN THEMIS!" he cried, but Themis stayed. He curled into a ball and muttered in Grest's language, "I will not run…" "But WHY!" Grest cried out. "He'll hurt you! You deserve to be-" The transformation left Grest silent. He watched as Themis' hands and feet turned into paws and his body turned into a body of fur. Themis had transformed into his true, laguz form.

"FOWL BEAST!" the man screamed and used a nearby pitchfork to try to attack the beast, but he missed because of Themis' reflexes. Suddenly, from behind, Themis jumped and clawed the man as hard as he could. The man screeched and started to run around screaming, blood squirting everywhere. Themis kept clawing him until the man fell unconscious to the ground, bleeding slowly to death. Grest looked at the blood and screamed himself, backing away from it. He was afraid of the sight of blood. One look at it and it made him shiver of fright.

Themis reverted back to his human form and looked at Grest. _"Beorc…. Are you all right…?"_ he asked, tilting his head in wonder what Grest was so scared about. Grest looked back at Themis and nodded slowly. _"M…My name's…. name's Grest….."_ he chattered as he moved away from the blood. Themis looked back at Grest and then nodded. _"Afraid of blood? Hmm… We can perhaps take another route, to avoid the blood. Back to your cabin." _Grest then looked at Themis, confused. Back to his cabin? _"To my cabin?" _he asked. _"I want you to be free, not under the control of us filthy humans!" _Themis laughed and shook his head. _"This is my will. I want to be your friend. You saved me and I will never forget! Thank you."_

Grest blinked. And then smiled to him. He then quickly said something about Gale and then Themis looked at him. _"You write romantic dramas? This I have to see!"_


End file.
